


The Lost Vessel

by AbsolXGuardian



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: (said sad ending has yet to be written), Fluff, Fluff with a Sad Ending, Found Family, Gen, Nuerodivergent coded vessels, Outside of Hallownest worldbuilding, Prequel, non-verbal Knight, outsider pov
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26649553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsolXGuardian/pseuds/AbsolXGuardian
Summary: Once, the Vessel who would one day be known as The Knight left the ruins Hallownest. But before they returned, what did they do? Perhaps they found a new family in the small farming village of Azurecrest.NOTICE: On hiatus until further notice, but the chapters that do exist work well as stand alone fluff.
Relationships: The Knight & Original Hollow Knight Characters
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	1. Washed Ashore

Alissa dropped her water bucket and bent down to look at the bug that had washed up on the river bank. They were as tall as her, but squat, not long  
and spindly in the way that promised future height. She tentatively used her small foot to flip the bug over, not sure if they were dead. The bug's eyes were closed, showing the darkness of their skin under their mask. 

In response to the kick, they shivered a bit, the first movement Alissa saw. _Wait_ , a sense of urgency rushed through her. That meant this bug was alive!

"Ma, ma!" she called, scrambling up the small valley that led to the river and out towards the fields.

Alissa found her mother, Katerina, quickly. It was harvest season, and the entire village was out, using sickles to fell the tall-grass. She was working on the edges of the fields.

"Alissa," Katerina stopped when she heard Alissa calling. She glared down at her daughter. "You were supposed to fetch water from the river? What do you do instead? You loose the bucket. This is your-"

"No, Ma," Alissa cut off her mom's lecture. "This is important. I found a bug by the river. I think they're alive, but they're hurt."

The Katerina Alissa usually saw was a stern woman, but in reality her base nature was kind and compassionate. It was just that her daughter was quiet the troublemaker. The stickbug dropped her sickle instantly, and followed her daughter to the river bank.

"I know they look dead, but when I flipped them over they moved," Alissa rambled as they approached the river bank, "And Old Tom says that there are some bugs with thick shells so you can't really tell if they're breathing-"

"Calm down, dear," Katerina said as she bent down using her backwards knees. She scooped up the unconscious bug with her thin arms. But the limbs of a stickbug are deceptively strong, and she easily cradled the stranger in the crook of her elbows. She then stood up to her full height, over twice that of her daughter. "We're going to get this bug some help. I don't see any injuries, so a bit of lifeblood should be enough to restore them. Let's take them back home, I'm sure the rest of the village will understand."

Alissa jumped and half-climbed along to keep up with her mother's smooth and long strides. They returned to their home. A modest house, like all in the village. Naturally, it was tall enough to accommodate the full height of an adult stickbug. It was supported by a wood frame, with thick cloth for walls. 

Katerina and Alissa pushed through the flap acted as their door. The mother carefully bent down and laid the unconscious bug in her daughter's bed- the empty shell of a wild-bug, filled with blankets. Alissa peered over the rim, fascinated by this stranger. 

"I'll go get the lifeblood from the kitchen," Katerina said, "you keep an eye on our guest." Azurecrest was lucky to have a lifeblood cocoon. Once it was filled up it was carefully drained for its bright blue lifeblood- an extraordinary substance capable of speeding up healing and restoring strength. Each household in the village was given a vail of it, but that was largely a formality. Any neighbor would happily give over their vail to help if someone was injured. And if there was lifeblood to spare, they were promptly refilled. 

By the time Alissa's excitement at the arrival of this stranger to her village had given way to for their safety, her mother returned. Katerina cocked her head to the side for a moment, considering, before handing the vial to her daughter. 

Gingerly, the young bug accepted the vial. She leaned over to the stranger's face, and reached for the seam in their mask. While the stickbugs didn't, many species of bugs wore masks. A few of them had passed through the village in her short lifetime, so she knew how to tell their perfect white coloring from the white chitin some species- like Old Tom's- had around their face. Alissa assumed that was what this stranger wore.

But running her fingers along the base of their head, she felt no seam. "Ma, ma-" sudden panic rose in her throat.

"What is it dear?" Katerina asked compassionately as she lowered herself to the ground. 

"They don't have a mouth. How are they supposed to be healed if they don't have a mouth!"

"Well...actually I do remember a bug coming through here before you were born who didn't eat with his mouth. I think he absorbed it through his feet, or maybe he used photosynthesis like plants do..."

"How did they drink lifeblood?"

"I didn't ask, but it might work if we soak your friend here in a solution of lifeblood."

"Oh-" Alissa's anxiety began to clear, slightly. "We could put them outside, in case they eat the sun."

"That's a brilliant idea," Katerina said. But Alissa could tell her mother wasn't entirely sincere, and was trying to distract her from worrying about the bug's fate. 

Katerina scooped the bug out of Alissa's bed, this time carrying out all of the blankets. She carefully placed them down on the floor beside them. "I'll take the lifeblood back, you run down to the river and fill up your water bucket. Then we can give this little guy a bath.

* * *

When Alissa returned to her home, dragging a heavy water bucket behind her, Katerina was sitting outside on a mat. Someone must have came by and saw that she wasn't out harvesting, so they gave her a different task. She was working on cutting the skin off a bushel of tall-grass. The shell that served as Alissa's bed was placed out in the sun, while her mother worked in the shade under the overhang that extended from their house. The bug Alissa had found was laying on their side in the pile of blankets. 

Before poring the water into the shell, Alissa offered her mother a chance to drink. She accepted, filling up a clay cup from the bucket. Once the shell had been filled with the rest of the water, the vial of lifeblood was uncorked and poured into the water. Alisa used her arm to swirl it around. The lifeblood quickly dissipated, leaving behind sky blue water.

Without the blankets, the bug was placed into the bath. Alissa made sure their head was above water, she didn't want to take any chances. 

Unlike other species, although not too uncommon, stickbugs also didn't wear clothes for modesty, just for protection against the elements. But this bug was wearing a cloak. The two stickbugs didn't really understand why some bugs wore cloaks when it wasn't cold, but they knew those bugs didn't like to undress. Not wanting to break norms they didn't understand, they dropped the bug in still wearing their tattered cloak. 

Once the bath was set up, all they had to do was wait. Never a moment to rest, especially during harvest season, Alissa was given half of her mother's bushel to skin. As the sun began to set, other bugs passed by their house on the way to their own dwellings. Katerina explained the situation to those who asked, and some even offered up their own vials for the bath.

When Old Tom walked past the set-up, he stood there, for a long time, not saying anything. He just looked at the convalescing bug. Old Tom was the refugee of some kingdom that fell when Alissa's mother was young. His short stature and old age meant he spent harvest season keeping an eye on the village's children. Katerina tried to engage him in conversation. They ended up trading meaningless pleasantries, and then Tom excused himself.

* * *

The strange bug finally awoke when the moon had fully risen. Alissa was startled. She had expected the bug to open their eyes, but instead they suddenly climbed out of their bath and hopped down. They must have still had some injuries, because after landing, their knees buckled.

"Oh, you're awake," Alissa cried, setting aside her work and walking to the bug as they stood up. "My name is Alissa. I found you in the river. You're in a village called Azurecrest. We took you back home and used lifeblood to heal you. Oh lifeblood is something that helps heal injuries. It's very rare so we're lucky to have it. What's your name? You don't look like any kind of bug-"

"Dear, calm down. Don't bombard our guest with questions" Katerina said. She had joined her daughter, but was standing at her full height. "I am Katerina, you've already met my daughter Alissa. How are you feeling?"

The bug paused, and looked down at their body. They moved their arms about, and then nodded tentatively.

"I'm sorry?" Katerina asked.

"Wait, can you not talk?" With the worry about this bug's safety mostly gone, Alissa had become her normal bubbly stuff. 

A nod.

"Oh well then, do you feel okay?" Katerina asked, assuming that nodding was the bug attempting to answer in the positive.

More hesitant than last time, but she received a nod in return. 

"Oh don't worry," Alissa replied, putting her arm around the bug, not really noticing how they neither embraced nor resisted the gesture. "I can do the talking for both of us. I mean you're a kid right? And it's not like you have anywhere to go, so you can be like my new sibling."

"Alissa, don't ask them more than one question at a time," she turned to the bug. " _Do_ you have anywhere to go?"

The bug shook their head. 

"Oh that's a good thing," Alissa began, "because we're all busy with the harvest season, so we couldn't really spare anyone to make sure you get back to your home safely," she turned to her mother. "And they can stay with us, right?"

"Well of course," Katerina replied. "You will have to help around the village a bit, like any other child, although you probably shouldn't be up and about for the rest of the harvest season. Lifeblood can't do everything, you do still need to rest."

The bug nodded in affirmation of the agreement. 

Katerina began to speak, but then stopped herself. "Well I suppose I can't really ask you your name."

The bug surprised everyone when they broke away from Alissa's half-hug and picked up Katerina's now empty cup. 

"Are you trying to tell us your name?" Alissa guessed. 

The stranger nodded. 

"It's Cup? That's a weird name, but I suppose it could be normal for your species."

They shook their head and pointed at the inside of the cup. 

"Clay? Well that does sound more like a name."

A more intense head shake. They then moved their free hand in an arc over the cup.

"I'm sorry, we don't have any more words for that object. I guess you'll just have to chose a name. Is that okay?"

They shrugged, and then nodded.

"Alright, what do you want? Cup or Clay- wait you can't answer that. Do you want to be called Cup?"

Cup nodded.

Alissa heard a barely suppressed giggle from her mother. "Well then, Cup," Katerina said. "Welcome to your new home. I'll go store the grass in the cellar, Alissa you bring the blankets back into the main room. We'll leave the shell out here until I can ask Dreska what to do with the lifeblood in the morning. Cup you-"

Instead of waiting for Katerina to finish, Cup gently placed their namesake on the ground, and with easy deliberateness scooped up the pile of blankets. 

"Well I guess Alissa can bring in the cup. After that, you two make your beds from the blankets, and try to sleep. Don't keep them up all night with your chittering Alissa. They need their rest."

"Yes mother," Alissa groaned out as they picked the cup off the ground. 

She sprinted for a few seconds to catch up with Cup's determined pace. "I can't wait to show you your new home," Alissa said.


	2. Creation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katerina is the best weaver of Azurecrest. Cup is adapting to their new home.

Katerina looked up from her loom to find Cup silently standing there. "Cup, you finished your chores. You can go outside and play now."

No reaction. 

Cup was quite the strange child, Katerina had to admit. They'd do any chore you gave them without complaint, but afterwards would neither ask for more nor join Alissa and the other kids at their games. It had been several months since they first arrived, and while speaking may always been impossible for them, Katerina had expected them to be more excitable. But they just stood there, staring with those pitch dark eyes. 

"Alright. Come, sit over here," Katerina patted the mat she was sitting on inside the house's spinning room. "Alissa never had the patience for weaving, but maybe you do."

Cup waddled over in their way, and then sat themselves down, looking up at the weaving contraption. They still wore the tattered pleated cloak they came in with, and Katerina hadn't brought it up since. 

"Darvish needs a new panel for his house, so I'm weaving one for him. This-" Katerina dragged a basket woven from grass from her far side to in-front of Cup. "Is the silk worm yarn. It's already been dyed green. First we need to cut it. To do so-"

Katerina grabbed one of the threads and with it doubled over, held it out with her arms about a third of the way open. "You take a length about this much-"

She chucked, as she looked down and saw that Cup had grabbed their own thread, and was desperately trying to hold out their arms to the same length.

"It's fine, little one," Katerina let the end of her thread drop so she could give Cup an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "I'll cut the thread, you can-" Katerina searched her set up, realizing that there was nothing a bug of Cup's proportions could do to assist. A stickbug child of what she assumed was their age, like Alissa, would have to stretch to help warp the loom, but there was nothing it seemed her ward could do with their stubby little arms. 

Looking back down at Cup, she could have sworn, that if their face was capable of expression, they were consumed with fear. "How about you watch the process? Maybe then you could find a way to help." As she spoke, Katerina used a pair of scissors with thick triangular blades to cut the thread.

Cup replied with a stuttering nod. 

"The most important step is weaving is setting up the loom. I've already set up the heddles for the project. You take the thread, and bring it through one of the reeds and then through one of the heddle eyes," The long arms of a fully grown stickbug allowed Katerina to do so from a seated position. She brought the yarn in the leftmost space between the small wooden teeth of one of the bars. She then brought it through one of the gaps in the strings hanging vertically from movable bars above the whole set up. You then loop the thread around the rod at the end to keep it in place while you work."

Katerina measured out another piece of yarn as she talked. "Then you measure out another yarn, but thread it so it's below the first one, and goes through the lower heddle eye."

As she snipped the new thread, she looked down to see Cup reaching out their hands. "Like I said I don't really think you could reach-"

Cup then tried to grab the yarn from Katerina's hand. Surprised at this uncharacteristic insistence, she handed the young bug the thread.

For a moment, she feared she would regret it, when Cup jumped onto the movable front bar. They wobbled a bit, but the loom didn't collapse. Bending over in a precarious position, Cup threaded the yarn. Then they easily jumped to the end of the loom, and wrapped the yarn around the back bar.

Before Katerina could even fully register what she just saw, Cup had hopped down from the loom, and made their way back to where Katerina sat.

"Well, I suppose that would work."

* * *

So that's how they proceeded. The time it would normally take Katerina to set up her loom was cut in half. She cut the thread, and so long as she didn't let herself get distracted watching Cup's as of yet unseen agility, it would be ready by the time they were back and ready to go again.

"Well then Cup, that was quiet something. But the actual weaving is always gonna be a one bug job, so you can go out and play with Alissa now...or you can watch." Katerina wasn't surprised to see that rather than run off with the freedom of a child who had completed their chores, Cup simply backed up a few paces and sat down to watch."

Powering the loom with the footpedals, Katerina wove the two layers of yarn together to create a tightly woven weave, which Darvish would stitch into the walls of his house to replace a worn panel. 

"Here we go," Katerina held out the completed fabric, a wide smile on her face. She loved weaving, and while the process could be tedious, it was worth it when she had a piece of fabric sitting in her lap, where there was once just a pile of silken threads. 

Cup came over, and felt what they had helped make. They then held up their cloak.

"Oh, well I suppose I could weave a replacement cloak for you. We have the thread, and getting the dye right shouldn't be too hard. As for the construction, Kyth makes the best cloaks. And I'm sure they could replicate the style especially if they got a good look at how it was constructed. For the weave-"

Katerina reached her hand out to feel the cloak, but Cup jolted away and pulled the cloak tighter around themselves. 

"Alright..." Perhaps not touching another's cloak was a norm that came with wearing them for modesty. "Well I have a cold weather cloak and a few people have decorative ones. I supposed you could go around and-" Cup should their head. They held up the fabric they'd worked to create. "-You want that as your weave? I'd always thought of it as too rough for a cloak. I think you should really check out other ones before you-"

Cup shook their head.

"Well are you really sure?"

A nod. 

"Well in that case, we can try to figure out the dye after I drop off Darvish's panel."

* * *

Katerina and Cup's attempt at creating a black dye was to just throw in all of the common dyes in the village store into the pot. In the end, the result was a bit lighter and a bit more blue than expected, but it seemed acceptable to Cup. So they tossed in what Katerina hoped was just the right amount of silk for her estimates- very rough estimates given she had to account for a lot of pleating and Cup still wouldn't let her examine their cloak. 

But the piece of fabric they wove together ended up being the right size. While she brought it to Kyth to work on it, what ended up happening was that Cup insisted on sewing the cloak under Kyth's instructions. They remarked how the strange bug's stitches were highly precise for someone who seemed to be sewing for the first time.

After a week, Cup's new cloak was ready. Katerina or Alissa still didn't see Cup put it on, and Katerina even suspected their wore their old cloak under it. With it on, this was Cup's first real appearance change since they arrived in Azurecrest. And Katerina had to say, that as they followed behind Alissa, joining her in chores and escapades, Cup moved with a new confidence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to do research about how weaving works, but since I wasn't aiming for a specific technique and time period, I had to synthesize it based on the videos I could find online and make it work for a species with a different biology, so it might be nonsensical to someone who actually weaves. The silk worms bugs use aren't the same as the silk worms we use. Rather than their cocoons being harvested, they're more like sheep who excrete already spun silk threads. This is similar to how some ants keep other bugs as cattle for their excrement. Silk worms and cattlepilars are the two non-sapient bugs Azurecrest keeps as livestock.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know what the narrative structure of this fic will be, other than that it will be a collection of vignettes as Alissa grows up, ending with the Knight leaving one day to for Hallownest. 
> 
> The Knight probably could have pantomimed enough to communicate that the name they were given (in my HC) is Vessel [insert birth date on Hallownest calendar and bird order in that day], but I wanted them to be called something that is almost right- Cup, a type of vessel to express how Alissa and Katerina are never going to know what they really are.
> 
> Azurecrest is occupied by stickbugs (yes because of the meme), and some species of female stickbugs can reproduce either asexually or sexually. Alissa is a clone of Katerina and doesn't have a child.
> 
> Finally for timeline, as you could guess, it's been a while since Hallownest fell. It just took a long time for the Knight to leave the Abyss through an unstable tunnel that goes from there to the royal waterways, and then out to area's wider water system. Time in Hollow Knight is already very weird (Hornet is older than the Elderbug), okay.


End file.
